o stop now,
while the game is going well.' The third night, he was sure, would be
the worst; he had been drunk when he promised it, and the half of the
kingdom, the king could never have been in earnest about that! So he
decided to leave, without waiting so long as on the previous nights. In
that way he would escape the little man who had watched him before. All
the doors and posterns were locked, but he finally though of creeping
up to a window, and opening that, and as the clock struck nine, he crept
out there. It was fairly high in the wall, but he got to the ground with
no bones broken, and started to run. He got down to the shore without
meeting anyone, and there he got into a boat, and pushed off from land.
He laughed immensely to himself at the thought of how cleverly he had
managed and how he had cheated the little man. Just then he heard a
voice from the shore, 'Good evening, Christian, where are you going?' He
gave no answer. 'To-night your legs will be too short,' he thought, and
pulled at the oars. But he then felt something lay hold of the boat, and
drag it straight in to shore, for all that he sat and struggled with the
oars.

The man then laid hold of him, and said, 'You must remain at your post,
as you have promised,' and whether he liked it or not, Christian had
just to go back with him the whole way to the church.

He could never get in at that window again, Christian said; it was far
too high up.

'You must go in there, and you shall go in there,' said the little man,
and with that he lifted him up on to the window-sill. Then he said to
him: 'Notice well now what you have to do. This evening you must stretch
yourself out on the left-hand side of her chest. The lid opens to the
right, and she comes out to the left. When she has got out of the chest
and passed over you, you must get into it and lie there, and that in
a hurry, without her seeing you. There you must remain lying until day
dawns, and whether she threatens you or entreats you, you must not come
out of it, or give her any answer. Then she has no power over you, and
both you and she are freed.'

The smith then had to go in at the window, just as he came out, and
went and laid himself all his length on the left side of the princess's
chest, close up to it, and there he lay stiff as a rock until the clock
struck twelve. Then the lid sprang up to the right, and the princess
came out, straight over him, and rushed round the church, howling an